The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 521 The Beggar (Part Six)

An Youyou's begging business is not going well.

Perhaps because there are fewer pedestrians on the streets in winter, students have long been on holiday, and wealthy young masters and ladies are too lazy to go out in such cold weather. Farmers stay at home to hibernate, and the shops on the street are relatively quiet.

Because business was bad, the shopkeepers all had very short tempers. If any of the shop assistants were lazy, they would be scolded. As a result, the shop assistants also had bad tempers.

The shopkeeper scolded the waiter, who couldn't scold the customers, so he could only take a broom and go outside to beat and scold the beggars near the shop. An Youyou could say that she didn't stay in one place for long, and before she even met her target customer and got a single copper coin, she was driven to the next place. She spent the whole day checking her WeChat steps but didn't get much money.

No wonder An Youyou complained to Jiang Weiguo that her underlings couldn't even get enough food for the day if they went out begging.

This is indeed the off-season for begging.

After a whole day, despite her silver tongue, superb acting skills, and masterful dodging abilities, Ren Anyou only managed to earn a bowl of cold bean porridge and eight copper coins, another day of financial ruin.

Qin Huai wondered if it was because of poor performance that they had to increase working hours. He remembered that An Youyou used to finish work late at night and beg for food all the way home under the setting sun, just in time to get home before dark.

However, that was during the transition from summer to autumn, when it got dark relatively late. Now it's winter, so it gets light late and dark early, and if you get home before dark, you really won't need to eat for long.

An Youyou stayed in the city until dark, until many of the general stores had closed. Qin Huai estimated that it was past 8 p.m., but An Youyou showed no intention of returning. Instead, she walked further into the city, all the way to Fu Ji Restaurant, and found a sheltered spot against a wall about two or three hundred meters away from the restaurant to squat down.

This is very unlike An Youyou's style of begging. An Youyou has never been this kind of conservative beggar. When she begs, she always stands in the most conspicuous place with the highest foot traffic, so that she can find target customers at any time. Once she has her eye on someone, she will pester them relentlessly, crying and rolling on the ground.

An Youyou squatted against the wall, lost in thought, with her broken begging bowl in front of her. Inside was a small half-bowl of cold, slightly lumpy bean porridge that she had begged for at noon.

Three or four meters away from An Youyou were two beggars who weren't doing well. It was unclear whether they knew An Youyou or if she had already made a name for herself begging in Shanghai. These two beggars weren't far from An Youyou, but they didn't dare to look at her even twice, as if An Youyou was some kind of tyrant and that looking at her would result in a beating.

An Youyou sighed with great melancholy.

"Another day of spending more than earning."

"Where did you learn this idiom? I've never heard you say it before." Jiang Weiguo appeared at the base of the wall at some point. Judging from the direction he was standing, Qin Huai figured that Jiang Weiguo must have come straight here after getting off work at Fu Ji. This place was probably where An Youyou and he met.

Jiang Weiguo was holding a slightly worn, patched but clean cloth bag. The bag was half full, and it probably contained scraps of food that Jiang Weiguo had received from Fu Ji.

An Youyou looked at the cloth bag in Jiang Weiguo's arms and became even more melancholy: "I used to carry the cloth bag, now a bowl is enough. You don't need food anymore, but you're bringing things home instead."

Qin Huai: ...I really don't understand your inexplicable competitive spirit as three-legged toads who are so determined to be beggars.

Jiang Weiguo's face showed the same speechless expression as Qin Huai's: "Boss, I told you long ago that having a stable job is much better than begging."

An Youyou was furious: "Nonsense! Have you already forgotten the slogan we shouted this morning? Begging is the best job in the world. You have to shout the slogan too from now on. You're the one who should be shouting it the most."

Jiang Weiguo didn't want to shout slogans, so he chose to ignore An Youyou and silently skipped the topic, asking the question he had asked earlier again: "Boss, where did you learn the idiom 'spending more than you earn'?"

An Youyou got up and patted the dirt off her clothes, even though they were so dirty that there was no need to brush off the dirt. An Youyou wanted to take the cloth bag from Jiang Weiguo's arms and pretend that it was all the spoils she had obtained by begging, but she was also afraid that there might be some good ingredients inside, and that holding it in her arms would make the delicious food dirty. So she could only awkwardly hold the broken bowl.

"I heard it from Tailor Li when I was begging outside the tailor shop today," An Youyou said.

"Eldest brother, you have an excellent memory. You remember everything you hear, and you can recognize words you see even if you can't write them. Just by looking at the door, you can observe how the accountant uses an abacus. You can even remember how much money you asked for on a certain day a year ago, how much grain you bought from which grain shop, what the price of the grain was, and how much you spent. With such talent, calling you a child prodigy is not an exaggeration."

Seeing that Jiang Weiguo was praising her so sincerely, An Youyou immediately felt elated and proudly raised her head, beaming with pride: "Of course, I'm the boss, the boss can do everything."

"So, boss, are you really not going to seriously learn a skill and find a stable job?" Jiang Weiguo hadn't given up trying to persuade An Youyou to stop begging, abandon her evil ways, and embrace a stable job.

"Like me."

"Although after I got off the ship, I was unfamiliar with the place and had no money. I couldn't find a job to make a living in a short time, and I was too ashamed to beg. In the end, I fainted from hunger on a street corner and was picked up by you, boss."

“But as long as I have the opportunity, I can still find a good job at Fu Kee with a monthly salary of three yuan, three meals a day, two sets of clothes for spring and winter, and I can also pick up some scraps of food that Fu Kee doesn’t want to take home every day.”

"During festivals, if Fu Kee's business is good, you can get bonuses and food. You may not become rich, but at least you'll be stable and won't starve."

"With your intelligence and talent, you can definitely find a better job than Fu Ji. Isn't that better than begging?" Jiang Weiguo even used the words "intelligence and talent" to persuade An Youyou to find a job.

An Youyou was briefly tempted, but quickly reaffirmed her beliefs and refused to be swayed by Jiang Weiguo's sweet talk.

"Nonsense." An Youyou couldn't come up with anything reasonable either, so she could only emphasize the word "nonsense." "Begging is the best job. I've studied it for many years. You wouldn't understand!"

"Let me think about how I should say it..."

"Our family has been begging for food like this for generations. It's a stable way to make a living!"

Jiang Weiguo: ?

Qin Huai: ...

Jiang Weiguo didn't understand what An Youyou said, but Qin Huai did. The plant spirits' tribulation-crossing strategy was to learn nothing and just recklessly come to the human world. The three-legged toad's tribulation-crossing strategy was to beg for food, purely to beg for food, and to simply beg when it came to the human world.

No wonder Qin Huai felt that An Youyou was quite talented in begging when he first saw An Youyou's memories, and that her skills were far ahead of her peers. It turns out that it was all due to practice.

Just like Zhao Cheng'an's stolen skills, they were all practiced diligently before undergoing tribulation.

For a moment, Qin Huai found it difficult to judge whether the mayfly or the three-legged toad was more outrageous. One stole and the other begged. After An Youyou woke up, she and Zhao Cheng'an should have a lot in common.

"What's in the bag?" An Youyou didn't care whether Jiang Weiguo could understand or not; her eyes were fixed on the bundle. She wanted to know what scraps Jiang Weiguo had managed to grab that day and how many minutes had passed, as it concerned her dinner.

"Last winter at this time, I slept in a dilapidated temple. If it weren't for waiting for you, I wouldn't have gone hungry until this late every day. Your job is stable, but do I have any freedom? I can't rest whenever I want!"

Jiang Weiguo said casually, "Today, a guest ordered a whole fish feast, and I managed to snag quite a few fish offal, celery leaves, and some radish chunks. Chef Ding knew there were a lot of people with us, so he specially saved some minced meat for me, and also gave me a few slices of ginger and some chopped green onions."

"We drink fish offal porridge, stir-fry minced meat and carrot chunks together, and there's also cabbage that Aunt Chen gave us in the kitchen. We can also boil some plain cabbage and add a couple of drops of sesame oil. It'll taste just as good."

An Youyou couldn't help but swallow hard when she heard Jiang Weiguo say that.

"Okay...okay, your job is pretty good." Considering the sumptuous dinner, An Youyou temporarily admitted that Jiang Weiguo's job was good. "Hurry up, Thirteen, why are you walking so slowly?"

"Do you know what time it is now? When we get back, I still need you to cook porridge. I need to drink porridge, and tomorrow I have to get up early to beg for food in the city. I saw the young master of the Feng family go into the dance hall with my own eyes today. Knowing his habits, he will definitely stay in the dance hall all night and leave drunk at dawn. That's the best time to beg for money. As long as you're not afraid of getting beaten up, you can get two or three silver dollars if you're lucky. Then I'll have my pork knuckle for the New Year."

"Hurry up, don't delay my pork knuckle." Urged on by An Youyou, Jiang Weiguo could only quicken his pace.

"Thirteen, are you going to Fu Kee on New Year's Eve?"

"I'm going. Fu Kee won't be serving dine-in that day, it'll be all delivery, so it'll probably be busier than usual. I don't know if I'll be able to get off work around 7 PM."

"Oh, then I'll have to wait until midnight to eat braised pork knuckle? I heard that braised pork knuckle takes a long time to stew."

"I'll get up earlier and stew it in advance."

"That's good. It's a shame you have to work that day. You have no idea how easy it is to get food on New Year's Eve. I've already planned it out. On New Year's Eve, everyone will go to the city to beg for food. Xiao Si must go."

"Just smear some mud on yourself, but don't get too dirty, or it will spoil the festive atmosphere for the dignitaries. You didn't know last year when you weren't in Shanghai and had to go out to eat, but every single wealthy family in Shanghai was giving away porridge and vegetables, and many people who weren't beggars were pretending to beg for food."

"There's a saying among us beggars: if you're going to die, you have to make it past New Year's Eve. Otherwise, you won't even have a full meal before you die, and you'll have died in vain."

"The first day of the lunar new year is even more extraordinary. Not only do they provide porridge and vegetables, but they also give money. Even the most difficult shopkeeper can get a few copper coins if he says a few nice words and kowtows diligently."

"It's the grain shops that are shameless. They raise prices every time this happens, trying to make money off us beggars."

"...Grain shops cannot simply raise prices for beggars."

An Youyou completely ignored Jiang Weiguo and continued to say to herself, "It's such a pity you can't beg for food with me. Although the market was good those days, it was hard to get a good spot. The doors of the few generous households were surrounded by beggars. If you and I had beaten down those guys who were fighting for spots first and taken the best spots, then the 14 of us could have gone from house to house and begged for who knows how many good things we could have gotten."

"Maybe I can have another braised pork knuckle during the Lantern Festival!"

An Youyou really wanted to eat braised pork knuckle.

Jiang Weiguo remained silent, only quickening his pace.

It was quite late when the two returned to their lodgings. In those days, both candles and kerosene lamps were precious items, and lights were never turned on at night unless absolutely necessary. All the nearby farmhouses were asleep and had turned off their lights. Only one room on the second floor of the bluestone brick house had a kerosene lamp burning, providing a faint light.

An Youyou's twelve underlings were all awake, waiting in the house for An Youyou and Jiang Weiguo to return. Xiao Jiu, relying on his cotton-padded coat, stood guard at the gate of the courtyard. As soon as he saw the blurry figure in the distance, he hurriedly went to greet them.

Because it was too dark, An Youyou couldn't see the person clearly at all. It wasn't until Xiao Jiu got closer that An Youyou realized someone was there, which startled her.

As the eldest, An Youyou couldn't let her younger brother discover that she was frightened, so she pretended to be calm and stuffed the broken bowl into Xiao Jiu's arms, asking, "How much firewood did you collect today?"

"We've got plenty of extra supplies, boss! Enough to last us until the New Year!"

An Youyou nodded in satisfaction: "We'll continue collecting firewood tomorrow. We'll have to go to the city to beg for food during the New Year holiday, so we won't have time to collect firewood."

"I know, boss, I will definitely work hard to gather firewood." Xiao Jiu nodded frantically to show his loyalty.

As soon as Jiang Weiguo returned, he went straight to the kitchen to start a fire and cook porridge. The rest of his men poured out of their rooms to report on the day's work progress.

"Boss, I bought everything you mentioned, and I've spent all my money!"

An Youyou showed a pained expression; the darkness was her best camouflage.

"Boss, I did a lot of work today!"

"Boss, someone really tried to steal our grain today, but we managed to steal 20 jin of rice bran and 10 jin of sweet potatoes!"

"Well done!"

"Boss..."

The chattering of the underlings gave An Youyou a headache, so she raised her voice: "Alright, alright, what's all the noise about in the middle of the night? Brother Chen and Sister-in-law Chen are probably already asleep. If you wake them up and kick them out, I won't beg you. It's good that we can save some money by renting two fewer rooms. Once you're kicked out, you can all go back to sleep in this dilapidated temple!"

The underlings immediately fell silent, not daring to breathe, for fear that their breathing would disturb An Youyou and get her kicked out.

The commotion downstairs attracted the attention of people upstairs. After a series of footsteps, Brother Chen, the farmer's son, came downstairs carrying a kerosene lamp.

Qin Huai didn't know whether the one carrying the kerosene lamp was his eldest son or his second son. In any case, they weren't very old. They looked to be around the age when they should be starting school. They were quite mature and reliable compared to the other children who were probably a few years older than him.

"My parents have just fallen asleep, please keep your noise down so as not to disturb them."

"Chen Shun, guess what we're having for dinner today?" An Youyou couldn't keep anything to herself and couldn't wait to start showing off.

Judging from An Youyou's tone, Qin Huai knew that Chen Shun would have dinner with her.

An Youyou was surprisingly not upset, nor did she guard her food. Qin Huai guessed that the Chen family had paid for her meals.

After all, Chen had breakfast with An Youyou. Jiang Weiguo's cooking skills were absolutely outstanding among ordinary people in this era.

"What?" Chen Shun asked.

"Fish offal porridge, and stir-fried white radish with minced meat!"

Upon hearing this, the underlings all began to swallow hard.

“Fish offal is fishy, ​​and without seasoning, it would be hard to swallow when cooked into porridge. Back in Sichuan, my mother would throw away the fish offal when she stewed fish to feed the cats,” Chen Shun said.

"That's different. Thirteen's fish offal porridge is definitely delicious. Everything he makes is delicious."

"If it weren't for Thirteen's delicious cooking and the fact that your family has a kitchen, I wouldn't have spent so much money renting a place. All I wanted was a hot meal, right?"

"When I have money in the future, I will give him thirteen silver dollars every month and make him cook for me every day. Then I can eat pork knuckle when I want, roast chicken when I want, and if I'm in a good mood, I can eat one pig head and throw it away."

Hearing An Youyou say that, Xiao Jiu swallowed hard again and volunteered, "Boss, I can cook for you too!"

"Come on, you can't even cook porridge properly. Even if you gave me three silver dollars a month, I wouldn't let you cook for me."

(End of this chapter)